Sunday, July 28, 2013

Positive ways to move ahead on International Tiger Day

Monday,
July 29 is International Tiger Day, and all over the world people will
celebrate the great cat and all that it represents – environmental
security, clean air, clean water and clean government.

International Tiger Day is a time to spread the word that
saving the remaining wild tigers means saving ourselves – from
climate disasters, from the scourges of corruption and organised crime,
from a future void of the magnificence of nature.

EIA
will be spending International Tiger Day participating in a tiger
conservation workshop in China being hosted by the Government, with
support from the Global Tiger Initiative
and WWF.

It’s
an opportunity for our tiger campaigners to engage directly with
Chinese officers and decision-makers, to spur them into action against
the criminal networks that control
the trade. We know from our own investigations and insights into the
who, where, what, why and how of the trade, that
a lot more could be done to disrupt these networks by using targeted law enforcement.
Where there is a will, there is a way. The question is, whether the
Government of China will put its money and resources where they
are needed.

Demand reduction is an equally important aspect of combating illegal trade, but in China policies which support
a parallel legal market for the skins of captive-bred tigers
are proving highly counterproductive. This failed experiment is in fact
stimulating demand and thus driving the poaching of wild tigers and other Asian big cats.

With
leadership, strong supportive policy and collaboration, however, demand
reduction campaigns can be successful and this workshop provides an
opportunity to focus on a positive
way forward.

It
would truly be an International Tiger Day worth celebrating if, in this
20th anniversary year of China’s domestic tiger bone trade ban,
China extended that commitment to end all trade, in all tiger parts and
products from all sources, wild and captive.

For more information about the workshop, click
here. For live updates on EIA’s responses and inputs, follow us on
Facebook and Twitter (@EIAinvestigator).

Action point:
If you want to help make the changes the wild tiger
needs, write to your Head of State and urge them to reach out to the
new leadership of China, asking that every possible action is taken to
end demand for tigers and other Asian big cats, including an unambiguous
end to policies which promote trade and putting
more investment into enforcement resources to disrupt the major criminal networks controlling international illegal trade.